| John Henry Devereux | |
|---|---|
| Born | 26 July 1840 County Wexford, Ireland |
| Died | 16 March 1920 |
| Resting place | St. Lawrence Cemetery 60 Huguenin Avenue Charleston, Charleston County South Carolina USA 29403 32°48'53"N 79°56'37"W |
| Nationality | Irish immigrant |
| Occupation | architect |
| Known for | designs of post Civil War Charleston, South Carolina |
| Spouse | Agatha Eulalie Brandt Devereux (1846–1867) |
| Children | 1900 Census:[1] John Henry Devereux (34) Ellen Devereaux (32) Lillie Devereaux (29) Eulalie Devereaux (14) John H. Devereux (2) |
| Parents | Nicholas Devereux (1798–1869) Dorothy Bryan Devereux (1801–1884) |
| Relatives | Household members (laborers) as of 1900[1] Ruben Macree (54) Missie Keelee (20) Mary Read (21) |
John Henry Devereux, (20 July 1840 – 16 March 1920) American architect and builder best known for his designs in Charleston, South Carolina. According to the National Park Service, he was the "most prolific architect of the post-Civil War era" in the Charleston area.[2] Works are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and one is further designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark, to wit: Charleston Post Office and Courthouse. He blended and mixed architectural influences and styles. In his career, he also managed to do a theatre, a synagogue, a Masonic hall (and he became a Mason to do it, even though Catholic), and Catholic and Lutheran churches (the latter being the tallest building in South Carolina for over a hundred years).
Devereux was born 26 July 1840 in County Wexford in Ireland. His family immigrated to the United States in 1843 when he was 3 years old. Devereux married Agatha Eulalie Brandt, a woman from France, in 1863.[3]
The 1900 Census of Moultrieville, Charleston, South Carolina, shows he was divorced.[1] The 1910 Census of Moultrieville, Charleston, South Carolina, shows he was widowed, as does the 1880 Census. The 1870 Census shows a Dorathy Devereux, age 70, living in his household in Charleston, South Carolina. The 1880 Census of Moultrieville shows a Dolly Deveraux, his mother, living in his household. His mother's birthplace is Ireland. In the 1880 Census it shows our subject as a "Builder" in the Charleston area.[4]
Devereux was an Irish immigrant that came to the United States where he worked as a plasterer.[5] From an initial job as a plasterer, his eventual career was that of an architect of public buildings and churches in South Carolina's Lowcountry.[5] He studied architecture under the well known Charleston architect and builder Edward C. Jones.[3] By the 1860s he had become a "noted architect" in Charleston.[6] St. Matthew's Lutheran church was designed and built by him in the period 1867–1872.[3] As a bonus he received from the church a sterling silver tea set.[3]
Much of his work in Charleston is proximate to the corner of Meeting and Broad Streets, an area locally known as the "Four Corners of Law." The federal post office and courthouse exemplifies the importance of the federal presence in the city. Church and local government are a component of the metaphor.[5] During British rule, the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse was the site of the gallows for public executions.[5]
The 1887 Congress authorized funds for construction. Devereux designed the building. In 1872, he built St. Matthew's German Evangelical Lutheran Church, which at 255 feet was the tallest building in South Carolina, a status which survived until 1973. See List of tallest churches in the world. Devereux became Superintendent of Construction and Repairs of the U.S. Treasury Department in 1885, and during that employment he designed the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse. He selected the Second Renaissance Revival style to convey the grandeur associated with public architecture at that time.[5] The building was a lengthy project, continuing unabated until 1896 and costing $500,000.[5]
Devereux was commissioned a captain in the Confederate Army in 1864 and was taken prisoner on the 25th day of February 1865. He was imprisoned in Fortress Monroe, Virginia in Casement no. 6. and was paroled 10 May 1865, a month after Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House.[7]
Devereux Chapel in Charleston's Saint Lawrence Cemetery[8] is where Devereux was originally buried. It is now razed and no longer exists. A large sarcophagus with Devereux's name is at the location where the Chapel used to be. It has never been confirmed if Devereux is actually in that sarcophagus.[7]
Charleston, South Carolina 1896. The building was individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and is also within the boundaries of the National Register and National Historic Landmark Charleston Historic District. Today, the building continues to function as a post office and courthouse.[5]
Charleston, South Carolina, 1867–72. Responding to the needs of a growing German community, the German Lutherans purchased land on King Street on which to build a new church, and selected Devereau as the architect.[9] This was one of two Gothic Revival churches he designed. Emulating English aesthete John Ruskin's advocacy for polychromed stone in ecclesiastical architecture — as he outlined in works such as The Stones of Venice — he used a polychromed "stuccoed surface scored and overlayed with paint, mixed with sand" to create the effect of different colored stone.[2]
In the cyclone of 1885, the finial was destroyed, and it was not replaced due to cost. A fire in 1965 toppled the steeple, which fell to the ground, the spire thrusting eighteen feet deep. Fortunately the church's stained glass was not affected. The church was restored.[9]
Originally built in 1843 for Samuel S. Stevens, Devereaux was hired after the Civil War by its next owner, Colonel Richard Lathers, a former Southerner who fought for the Union during the War Between the States,[12] to remodel his home at 20 South Battery[6] in the Second Empire style, that was popular at that time. In the remodeling a library was added with a mansard roof overhead. There was a "ballroom" constructed, however its use was not for dancing but as a conference room instead. Colonel Lathers used the conference room for meetings with his wealthy Yankee connections and because of this was unpopular with the locals. He eventually had to leave the territory. As the current owner of the building, now converted to a Bed and Breakfast, tells it: "Charlestonians eventually told Lathers he was unwelcome so he took his Yankee blood money with him and left."[13][14] Lathers was also a patron of architect Alexander Jackson Davis.
The western half of this 18th century double tenement (the eastern half was demolished) was remodeled in 1870 for George S. Cook, the noted photographer. Devereux was the architect.[15][13]
In 1830 on this site was Kerrison's Department Store (see List of defunct department stores of the United States), which was reputed to be "the South's oldest department store still in operation." When the store was destroyed in the great fire of 1838, it was rebuilt by Kerrison. In 1852 it was purchased by Browning & Leman, dry goods merchants, and a new store was designed by Charleston architect Edward C. Jones. In 1869, architect John Henry Devereux remodeled it and it became known as the "Academy of Music". For seven decades it was "one of America's best known theatres . . . patterned after European opera houses" with excellent acoustics. Performers included Sarah Bernhardt and others of similar international acclaim. The building was demolished and a new one put up.[16][17][18]
In 1875, Susan Wood contracted for a three story brick building designed and built by architect-contractor John Henry Devereux, replacing an earlier structure destroyed by fire that year. Although the ltalianate facade was remodeled early in the 20th century, its architectural integrity remains. In order, it housed a dry goods merchant, J.R. Read & Co., and then a studio and residence of George Bernard.[19][18]
In order to undertake this contract to build a Masonic Temple and defuse any criticism that it was designed by someone not a Mason, Devereux, who was a Roman Catholic, took the Entered Apprentice Degree of Masonry. He fashioned his design in the Tudor Gothic style,[9] and it was constructed of brick and stucco. Though remodeled several times, its original beauty, as built in 1872, persists to a degree,[20][21][18] in part because of a 1984 remodeling in which the "Gothic-arched storefronts were restored."[22]
Designed for wealthy Charleston grocery store owner John Klinch, the house was constructed in 1872. It is a combination of Gothic Revival and Italianate stylings, an upright-and-wing structure with a prominent two story porch across the wing.[23]
John Henry Devereux was the architect for William M. Bird, who was a partner with H.F. Welch. Their company was William M. Bird & Co., "wholesale dealers in paints, oils, glass, naval stores and ship chandlery." Bird never resided there, and in 1889 sold it to Otto Tiedeman, a wholesale grocer. Architectural detail mimicks features on the house at 24 South Battery. "Similarities include the prominent two tiered bay window, window treatment, piazza collonettes and railings, and other decorations. The house is faced with novelty siding typical of the period and the foundation is of Stoney Landing brick, made locally in the 1880s."[24]
What is now a parking lots includes the site of the Charleston Female Seminary, which was founded by Henrietta Aiken Kelley in 1870. "Miss Kelley's School", as it was called, was one of the South's leading girls' schools. Constructed in 1871, Devereux used "mixed Roman" or ltalianate architecture, and "an arcaded and pedimented facade."[25][26][27]
Another parking lot. The Orthodox Jewish congregation had its synagogue there in 1874–75. Abrahams & Seyle, architects designed the Classic Revival building, and Devereux was both an architect and contractor. In 1955–56. the building's interior was reconstructed inside the Brith Sholom Beth lsrael Synagogue at 182 Rutledge Ave.[28][29][27]
Devereux's personal mansion was expansive, opulent, and built in 1875. The elaborate gate house and massive main “once dwarfed all others on the island.”[30] Devereux took up residence in Charleston and spent his summers on Sullivan's Island.[3] His mansion gateway had whale's jawbones and the garden contained a ship's wooden figurehead of a lady.[3]